Plans to seek special aid to offset 17.5 percent tax hike.
By: Leon Tovey
JAMESBURG Without state aid, Jamesburg taxpayers could see a 17.5 percent increase in municipal taxes this year under a preliminary 2006 budget adopted by the Borough Council on Wednesday.
The Borough Council voted 5-0 to introduce the $5.152 million municipal spending plan for 2006. Councilman Joe Jennings did not attend the meeting.
The budget is $174,239 smaller than the final $5.327 million budget for 2005, but raises $439,183 more from taxes than last year.
While the overall 2006 budget is technically smaller than 2005, spending has actually increased by $426,000. The 2005 budget included a one-time, $495,000 Neighborhood Preservation Balanced Housing grant from the state that inflated the overall 2005 budget. Expenses covered by the grant aren’t included in this year’s budget.
As introduced, this year’s budget carries a tax rate increase of 18 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, bringing the rate to $1.211 per $100. At that rate, the owner of a house assessed at the borough average of $123,319 would pay about $1,493 in municipal taxes, an increase of $230 over 2005.
To help offset the tax increase, borough officials expect to apply for $439,182 in state extraordinary aid. If the borough received the full amount, the tax rate would remain flat however, the borough has not received the full amount of requested extraordinary aid since 2001 and Borough Business Administrator Denise Jawidzik said Thursday that she doesn’t expect to receive the full amount this year, either.
"We haven’t even seen applications yet," she said. "We have no indication from the state that there is even going to be extraordinary aid this year."
If the borough receives the same amount of extraordinary aid this year that it received in 2004 and 2005 $175,000 the tax rate would increase by 10.4 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. At that rate, the owner of a house assessed at the borough average would pay $1,392 in municipal property taxes, an increase of $129 from last year.
Last year’s budget carried a 20 percent increase in the tax rate when it was introduced, but thanks to several state and federal grants and $175,000 in extraordinary aid, the council was able to reduce the increase to 11 percent by the time the budget was adopted in July.
Among the largest increases in this year’s budget are a $100,500 increase in the police budget, a $57,593 increase in the amount of money the borough must pay into the Public Employee Retirement System and the Police and Firefighter’s Retirement System, a $25,000 increase in health insurance rates and a state-mandated, $18,997 increase in the library budget.
In addition, the budget calls for an additional $110,000 in the capital improvement fund to help cover the cost of soil remediation to clean up contamination caused by a leaky gasoline tank at the old Borough Hall on East Railroad Avenue.
The actual cost of the cleanup, which was ordered by the state Department of Environmental Protection, has not yet been determined, but at Ms. Jawidzik’s recommendation, the council agreed to budget $150,000 for the cleanup this year.
The increases left council members shaking their heads after the introduction of the budget. Councilman Otto Kostbar, who chairs the Committee on Finance and Budget, pointed out that with state-mandated cost increases, a stagnant ratable base and shrinking state aid, tax increases are the only option left to borough officials.
"As always, we’re hoping that we’re going to get discretionary aid (from the state)," Mr. Kostbar said. "We, as a council, have wracked our brains through the years trying to come up with ways to fix this, from interlocal agreements to third-party billing.
"Quite frankly, we’re getting to the point where we’re running out of ideas," he continued. "We’re going to need some major reform on the way taxes are raised and programs are paid for in this state.
Councilman Chris Maloney agreed. Mr. Maloney, who voted against the introduction of the 2005 budget because he said he wanted the council to consider looking at ways to shave the initial tax increase, said after Wednesday’s meeting that he didn’t vote against introduction this year because he didn’t think there were any other options.
"Look at the budget increases," Mr. Maloney said Wednesday. "We have very substantial increases in pension and insurance there is no discretion in those. We’ve kept salary increases to the cost of living if that. I don’t think we can do any better than what we have."